B A A H A U S
When these two sick animals
arrived at BaaHaus, we quarantined them so
they could be treated for any number of parasites. They had no idea how
to eat grain or even grass hay or alfalfa. All they knew were weeds.
Our old sheep Lollie watched through the fence. She became increasingly agitated as the babies laid down and cried.
Finally, Lollie could bear
no more; she burst through the gate and ran to Albertine and Gilberte,
nuzzling them and encouraging them to eat the feed. She showed by example
how delicious the grass hay could be (something
most sheep are very good at demonstrating).
We decided that it was more
important for the lambs to have a new mother than to maintain the quarantine,
so Lollie stayed with them and received
preventive medications right along with the lambs.
The lambs recovered and are
now relatively robust middle-aged sheep, enjoying life with all its riches.
The effects of starvation at such an early
age will probably shorten their lifespans, and skeletal malformations
are permanent, but for now, life is a full bowl
and a snooze in the shade for Albertine and Gilberte.
Albertine and her tiny sister
Gilberte came to BaaHaus shortly after we answered a "Free"
ad for lambs in a local paper.
When we went to pick them up,
we knew right away that something was wrong. The so-called owner had no
idea where the sheep were. And the smell of death was sickeningly apparent.
After tromping
across an abandoned pasture choked with weeds and rotten fencing, we found
one lamb dead, tangled in chicken wire in a
collapsed shed.
The surviving lambs had wandered
into a neighboring field. They were so malnourished, their teeth were
clear from lack of calcium and their leg bones were weak and malformed.
They were severely
underweight. Albertine still had her tail---apparently it was just too
much trouble to dock it.
